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Chapter 69- A white room

Ray

Ray woke up lying in a white room. The surroundings were pasty white, casting an eerie glow on the room. A strange pressure was in the air. Ray wondered for a moment what was wrong, but then he realized it, like a stone that hit his head. The mana wasn't visible anymore.

"So, you're awake." the voice of the Dean said, but Ray couldn't locate the source. What was going on? Why was he in this room? The last thing he remembered was trying to channel the information…and collapsing while looking very weird. Had the Dean figured it out? Did he give him up to the Xnarthan?

"Tell me something," the Dean asked, his voice sounding far too grave for Ray’s nerves. "Why choose me as a target?"

"What do you mean?" Ray asked, confused. Did the Xnarthan send someone that looked like him to assassinate the Dean or something?

"I knew that the Fae had powerful abilities, but I didn't know that one could just walk around in the streets of Afrieal without detection." the Dean said, conforming Ray’s fears.

"Can we talk face to face? I didn't target you, our meeting was just a coincidence." Ray said, turning around in circles, trying to locate the source of the voice.

"No, I measured the mana you had. I don't know why you noted down an instrument that could reveal you, but I did. I would have to be foolish to allow you out, who knows how powerful you really are." the Dean said, Ray could sense the hurt in his voice even through whatever device the Dean was using.

"I don't have access to my magic anyway! I am a child by Fae standards!" Ray shouted back, trying to get his point through.

"Why should I believe you? For all I know, you're lying and will kill me if you get out." the Dean countered. Ray caught on to the hope.

"A full Fae can't lie. So I couldn't be lying to you." Ray said, grasping at straws to get out this situation.

"Can't lie? How odd, I would think I would have heard something if it was like that,” the Dean said, the mockery in his tone felt hurtful for some reason. “But I have heard little about the Fae at all, certainly not much about your ability to only tell the truth."

"Just read one of the banned books, there should be enough information in them about it." Ray said.

"And where would I get those banned books?" the Dean countered, clearly not ready to believe him.

"How do I prove it to you?" Ray asked, frustrated.

"A mind meld." the Dean said, "I am sure you can survive it with your fancy Fae powers. But it will be dangerous melding with someone as powerful as me."

Ray's heart warmed, that meant the Dean could have done it before, but waited. Perhaps there was some part of the Dean that still trusted him. A bronze circle appeared on the floor, sparkling brightly.

Ray felt a headache coming just looking at it. The room clearly did little to nullify mental powers. The disc was like a stake to the head, forcing him to hold his head as he walked. Ray persevered, touching it in hopes that it would trigger the mind meld.

"So you are more powerful than I thought." the Dean said, hissing the words out as the pain suddenly disappeared. A gentler liquid seemed to pour into Ray's mind as he felt a mind meld appear.

But the feeling wasn't new, in fact he'd done this one before. Norman, the time during the battle. So that was a mind meld back then. Ray felt his mind shake as the Dean's presence intensified, like a giant that was stomping towards him.

In war death,

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In life breath,

And in Fae enwreathe

Ray thought, letting his mind calm down. The meld strengthened giving Ray the opportunity to actually feel the meld. The meld, to his shock, was quite different to the one he’d participated in before. For one, it wasn’t as one-sided, and the other participant, the Dean, wasn't there to complete the connection.

Ray had much more power than before. But it was also deeper than Norman's meld, the latter was just for communication, and did not stretch very deep. But this one, it was deep, Ray couldn't tell how deep without talking with the Dean, but he had a feeling that while he could lie here, the Dean would be able to feel it if he did.

The space was not really a meld of minds, more like a common meeting space between two minds.

"So, you’ve done this before." the Dean said, appearing in the space. Ray looked at him, observing the silhouette of black with white sparkles. The element of space? Ray had no idea how things worked.

"Why do you say so?" he asked, genuinely curious. A fact the Dean knew, since the curiosity bled into the space, making him feel it too.

"I can't hold a normal form, but you can." the Dean said, gesturing to Ray's body. And indeed, Ray looked like he had back in the room, not a mass of mana like the Dean.

"How did you do it?" the Dean asked, his irritation seeping into the room and making Ray irritated too.

"I don't know" Ray said, his own feelings compounding with the Dean's to cause the feeling of frustration. Ray's senses yelled danger, as he instinctively knew that such combinations could easily form dangerously powerful emotions, and should be stopped.

Ray repeated the poem, trying to calm himself and thus the Dean. The Dean took a few deep breaths too, calming himself, but Ray could feel his confusion. The calming effect dismissed the frustration, reverting the room to a clean state.

"The emotions can bounce off each other and grow into something bigger and more violent." Ray said, feeling the need to know that radiated from the Dean.

"Oh," the Dean said, his mistrust increasing.

"The information came instinctively, I didn't know it before." Ray said, speaking before the Dean began making any presumptions.

"So, is that how you knew the poem too?" the dean asked, marking the interrogation begun.

"No," Ray said, "I learned that from another Fae, the cat that stays at my home."

"And of course the pet cat is a Fae. How many of you are in the city? Are you planning an invasion? Do you plan to conquer or just kill?" the Dean asked, firing questions quicker than Ray could answer them.

"Just us two, no, and there is no plan." Ray replied, trying to reply before the Dean panicked anymore- and they were doing it again. The panic had been amplified by Ray's own reaction, then further amplified by the bounce off effect.

"I did say that this would be dangerous…" the Dean said, but Ray could feel the guilt. At least they hadn't had any problems with the difference in power yet.

"Why are you here?" the Dean asked.

"I don't know, Ma found me here as a baby." Ray said.

"As a baby? Are you telling me that the Fae just left a child lying in the dirt?" the Dean scoffed, his distrust seeping through.

"On a tree, but yes, that is what it seems to be." Ray said, trying to project that he was telling the truth. The Dean's puzzlement was the only answer he got.

"The Fae are murderous over their children, they would never leave a child to fend for himself in the woods." the Dean said.

"I …don't know." Ray said, now confused. Didn't the Dean not know anything about Fae?

"The Fae are masters at deception, or at least that's what the records say. Though your kind can't lie, you manage with an ocean of half-truths and omissions. For all I knew you were leaving some important part out." the Dean said, trying to be cooperative.

"Did you mean me any harm when you became my disciple?" the Dean asked, his tone grave as he leaned forward. Ray didn't even need the meld to tell him that it was significant.

"No, I just thought you were a greedy jerk. And it's just been a week or two right? I don't know if you're not a greedy jerk yet." Ray said, letting the fact that it was a joke seep through. The Dean paused on the mention of time, remembering something regretful.

"What is it?" Ray asked, "What happened?"

"I will tell you later." the Dean said, not able to hide his guilt, "Now onto-"

"No, what happened." Ray felt his urgency deepen. What was the Dean hiding?

"I still have a few que-"

"No. What are you hiding from me?" Ray asked, his distrust deepening as he stared at the old man before him. What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it? Did he harm one of his friends? Did the Xnarthan? What had happened? Was the Dean lying to him? Was he working for the Xnart- the meld. Ray took a deep breath, trying to calm and separate himself from the roaring river of emotions.

As soon as he did so, the river collapsed, leaving him alone with a hyperventilating Dean.

"Perhaps we should continue this conversation outside." the Dean said as the mind meld collapsed. Ray woke up in the white room, clinging to the disc, still dizzy from his experience.

A door opened, letting the Dean in with a glass of water.

"Here, I don’t know if you need it or if it will even help you, but it's all I could think of." the Dean said, handing Ray the glass of water. Ray drank it, feeling much better after. Now it was time to know what was happening.